July 20, 2025 • 11 mins
The British Government has announced it will lower the voting age to 16 for all elections across the UK, fulfilling a key election promise made by the centre-left Labour Party during last year's campaign.
The new voting age is set to come into effect by the next general election in 2029.
Today we're breaking down what this means for British democracy and how it compares to Australia's approach to youth voting.
Hosts: Emma Gillespie and Billi FitzSimons
Producer: Orla Maher
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Already and this this is the Daily OS.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Monday,
the twenty first of July.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm Billy fitz.
Speaker 5 (00:19):
Simon's I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
The British Government has announced it will lower the voting
age to sixteen for all elections across the UK, fulfilling
a key election promise made by the center left Labor
Party during the last year's campaign. The new voting age
is set to come into effect by the next general
election in twenty twenty nine. Today we are breaking down
what this means for British democracy and how it compares
(00:43):
to Australia's approach to youth voting. But before we get there,
here is a quick message from today's sponsor, Philly.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We are talking.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Today about a major change that has been announced in
the UK. The British Government has announced it's lowering the
voting age from eighteen to sixteen years old. We've had
a lot of conversations about lowering the voting age in
recent years. There's discussion here in Australia and right around
the world, but it is pretty significant for such a
(01:17):
huge democracy to make a shift like this. What exactly
has been announced in the UK?
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Okay, So the government and keep in mind this is
a new government. So like I said at the start,
this is the Labor Party who is in government. They
are center left and they took over from the center
right Conservative Party at the last election.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Led by Prime Minister Kirs Starmer exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
And so they have announced that the new voting age
in the UK will be sixteen. Now that's down from eighteen.
So currently you have to be eighteen to vote in
elections and that's all elections, and now it will be
sixteen after this comes into effect.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
So when you say all elections, does that mean at
all levels of government like local council.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Local general elections, any referendums there might be. And what
they've also announced is that you'll be able to register
from the age of fourteen. So that's just to be
able to get ready to vote by the time you
are sixteen. Now on the registration, the government has also
said that they do plan to make registrations automatic eventually, okay,
(02:21):
but for now it is still something that you manually
have to do, which is the same as it is
here in Australia. Also in the policy paper announcing this change,
they really said that this is all about engaging the
youth in democracy and really trying to increase participation from
the youth in politics.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Okay, so the thinking behind sort of opening up registration
at age fourteen is that more about kind of harnessing
the two years before someone might become a legal voting
age to help educate them on civics and get them
ready for what that responsibility means.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Yeah, I think it's to get them ready and to
get them excited. You know, if you start talking about
it from the age of fourteen and then by the
time you're ready by sixteen, you know, you're kind of
building this process where throughout these formative years you're really
engaging with the democratic process.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Billy, what is behind this change? Because, like I mentioned,
it's not the first time we've heard about momentum in
terms of lowering the voting age. But why is it
happening now in the UK? Why does the government there
think it's necessary?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So they said that this is a decision that is
based on allowing young people to have a say in
shaping their own future. So acknowledging there that the government
is making decisions every day about different things that affect
people's future, and that includes young people of course.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I mean it affects young people more than anyone else.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Especially when we're talking decades forward future policies, looking to
kind of the generations ahead, they're the ones that will
be the most impact exactly.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Another thing they pointed to was declining voter turnout as
a key concern. So in their policy paper they said,
declining turnout and lower voter registration numbers show that many
have lost confidence that they are being listened to. Now,
unlike Australia, voting in the UK isn't compulsory.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Okay, I was going to ask you yes.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
So in Australia, whenever there's an election, we always have
this conversation about making sure that people are informed. But
overseas it's actually not as common for there to be
compulsory voting. Often it's voluntary, and so the conversation there
is how do we get more people to vote. At
(04:35):
the last general election in twenty twenty four, only about
sixty percent of eligible voters actually turned up.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
To the polls.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
That is so much lower than I thought it would
be For the UK. I think those are the kind
of numbers we expect out of the US, where voter
participation is famously lower, but sixty percent, it's very different
to the story here.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, and that was the lowest turnout since two thousand
and one, and it was also about eight percent lower
than the previous election in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Very interesting to kind of analyze that pre and post
social media trend that there was low turnout in two
thousand and one. Then you kind of have this dawn
of the digital age and social media and all that
that does for mobilizing or disenfranchising people from voting, and
then it reaches this head in twenty twenty four where
people just aren't turning up.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah, and so the government sees lowering the voting age
as a way to re engage people with the democratic
process and to boost participation. And there is this school
of thought that suggests that if people start voting at sixteen,
then they're more likely to continue voting throughout their lives,
which they see as a way to boost overall turnout.
(05:45):
So it's kind of a long term strategy here.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Interesting. I think when we hear the conversations about lowering
the voting age, especially here, in Australia, it's often centered
around policy and what that policy means for the future generations,
as we've touched on a little bit. But this angle
on voter turnout is really interesting. It's not really something
I had thought about, especially here with compulsory voting, kind
(06:08):
of what that might mean in a different country or
government or democracy. What has the reaction been though to
this announcement. I'm really fascinated because I know this is
a topic that divides people very strongly.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Yeah, so the main opposition in the UK, the Conservative Party,
is strongly against the proposal. Paul Holmes, who is a
senior Conservative politician, he raised concerns in the comments about
the inconsistency of age limits.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Here's a little bit of what he said.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Young people are being abandoned in drows by the Labor Party.
So why does this government think a sixteen year old
can vote but not be allowed to buy a lottery
ticket and alcoholic drink, marry, or go to war or
even stand in the elections they're voting in. Isn't the
government's position on the age of majority just hopelessly confused?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So there he's really talking about all of the different
things that sixteen year olds can't do like drink or ma,
and so he's therefore saying, if we don't trust them
to do that, then why would we trust them to vote?
What I found interesting about that is that it's actually
kind of similar to why the government did introduce it, although.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
They flipped it.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
They said that we do allow sixteen year olds to
leave school, we do allow them to work and to
pay taxes, so therefore, why wouldn't we allow them.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
To also vote.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
It's kind of this thing of like you're looking at
two sets of facts but taking very different angles from it.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
It's kind of a spectrum in terms of what is
an adult what does adulthood look like in the UK?
And when you are sixteen you can do some things
that are pretty adult sounding on paper, but then there
are other things that are off limits to Youah. How
does all this compare to what's happening in Australia in
terms of the kind of current regulations and the conversation
(07:51):
that we've been having.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, So in Australia, like I said before, the voting
age is eighteen and it has been that since nineteen
seventy three, saying that though there have been several attempts
over the years to change that. In twenty twenty three,
the then Green's MP Stephen Bates introduced a private member's
bill to allow sixteen and seventeen year olds to vote now.
(08:14):
His reasoning at the time, Bates argued that lowering the
voting age would give young people the opportunity to have
a real say over the politics and policies that will
impact them.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
For the rest of their lives.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
So exactly the reasoning that we were talking about before,
which is why the UK government has introduced this bill.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
However, the bill.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
That Stephen Bates introduced in twenty twenty three that did
not have the support of either the opposition or the
government at the time.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Yeah, I remember that being kind of roundly shut down
by both major parties. But what was interesting about the
Green's proposal at the time was that it suggested allowing
sixteen and seventeen year olds the option to vote, but
not making it mandatory.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Which it is for the rest of Australia exactly, which
would make it different in that way, I suppose.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yeah, Okay, So that was twenty twenty three, Billy, so
really not so long ago under an Albanesi government. What
was the reason that Labor gave for not supporting it.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Yeah, so at the time, I spoke to the then
Youth Minister Anne Ali about why the government wasn't in
support of it, and she basically just said that she
didn't believe it was a priority for young people.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Here's a little bit of that interview.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Can you explain why the government is not in favor
of lowering the voting age to sixteen?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
The first thing I'll say is that when I go
out and talk with young people, lowering the voting age
is not one of the top five issues that comes up.
I don't want young people to think that voting is
the only agency that they have in making change.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
So the Australian government's position was just essentially that young
people themselves weren't asking for this change, according to them.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Okay, so the kind of conversation ongoing here in Australia,
but we know this is happening in the U. Remind
me when this is actually coming into effect.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
So they have just said that this will be in
place by the time there is the next election, which
will be in twenty twenty nine, so that gives them
a few years to get the legislation through Parliament and
to have it come into.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Effect really refresh my memory. I know that the Labor
victory at the last UK election was pretty historic, bit
of a landslide. Do they have the numbers then to
pass this legislation?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Is it a short thing? Yeah, I mean it's never
a short thing.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
But they do have the numbers in Parliament to get
this through, so by all accounts this should be getting
through even though they don't.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Have the support of the opposition.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Fascinating. It is such an interesting, evolving conversation. It will
be really really interesting to see kind of how things
in the UK might shift the conversation for other parts
of the world, other parts of the Commonwealth. Really significant
and super interesting for young audiences. Will keep you updated
as we we learn more about this one. Thank you
(11:02):
so much Billy for explaining it to us.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
That's all for today's deep dive. Thank you so much
for tuning in. We will be back a little later
on with your afternoon headlines, but until then, have a
great day.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
bunjelung Kalkutin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily Oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Strait island and nations.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
both past and present.
Already and this this is the Daily OS.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Monday,
the twenty first of July.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm Billy fitz.
Speaker 5 (00:19):
Simon's I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
The British Government has announced it will lower the voting
age to sixteen for all elections across the UK, fulfilling
a key election promise made by the center left Labor
Party during the last year's campaign. The new voting age
is set to come into effect by the next general
election in twenty twenty nine. Today we are breaking down
what this means for British democracy and how it compares
(00:43):
to Australia's approach to youth voting. But before we get there,
here is a quick message from today's sponsor, Philly.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We are talking.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Today about a major change that has been announced in
the UK. The British Government has announced it's lowering the
voting age from eighteen to sixteen years old. We've had
a lot of conversations about lowering the voting age in
recent years. There's discussion here in Australia and right around
the world, but it is pretty significant for such a
(01:17):
huge democracy to make a shift like this. What exactly
has been announced in the UK?
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Okay, So the government and keep in mind this is
a new government. So like I said at the start,
this is the Labor Party who is in government. They
are center left and they took over from the center
right Conservative Party at the last election.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Led by Prime Minister Kirs Starmer exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
And so they have announced that the new voting age
in the UK will be sixteen. Now that's down from eighteen.
So currently you have to be eighteen to vote in
elections and that's all elections, and now it will be
sixteen after this comes into effect.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
So when you say all elections, does that mean at
all levels of government like local council.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Local general elections, any referendums there might be. And what
they've also announced is that you'll be able to register
from the age of fourteen. So that's just to be
able to get ready to vote by the time you
are sixteen. Now on the registration, the government has also
said that they do plan to make registrations automatic eventually, okay,
(02:21):
but for now it is still something that you manually
have to do, which is the same as it is
here in Australia. Also in the policy paper announcing this change,
they really said that this is all about engaging the
youth in democracy and really trying to increase participation from
the youth in politics.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Okay, so the thinking behind sort of opening up registration
at age fourteen is that more about kind of harnessing
the two years before someone might become a legal voting
age to help educate them on civics and get them
ready for what that responsibility means.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Yeah, I think it's to get them ready and to
get them excited. You know, if you start talking about
it from the age of fourteen and then by the
time you're ready by sixteen, you know, you're kind of
building this process where throughout these formative years you're really
engaging with the democratic process.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Billy, what is behind this change? Because, like I mentioned,
it's not the first time we've heard about momentum in
terms of lowering the voting age. But why is it
happening now in the UK? Why does the government there
think it's necessary?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So they said that this is a decision that is
based on allowing young people to have a say in
shaping their own future. So acknowledging there that the government
is making decisions every day about different things that affect
people's future, and that includes young people of course.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I mean it affects young people more than anyone else.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Especially when we're talking decades forward future policies, looking to
kind of the generations ahead, they're the ones that will
be the most impact exactly.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Another thing they pointed to was declining voter turnout as
a key concern. So in their policy paper they said,
declining turnout and lower voter registration numbers show that many
have lost confidence that they are being listened to. Now,
unlike Australia, voting in the UK isn't compulsory.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Okay, I was going to ask you yes.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
So in Australia, whenever there's an election, we always have
this conversation about making sure that people are informed. But
overseas it's actually not as common for there to be
compulsory voting. Often it's voluntary, and so the conversation there
is how do we get more people to vote. At
(04:35):
the last general election in twenty twenty four, only about
sixty percent of eligible voters actually turned up.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
To the polls.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
That is so much lower than I thought it would
be For the UK. I think those are the kind
of numbers we expect out of the US, where voter
participation is famously lower, but sixty percent, it's very different
to the story here.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, and that was the lowest turnout since two thousand
and one, and it was also about eight percent lower
than the previous election in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Very interesting to kind of analyze that pre and post
social media trend that there was low turnout in two
thousand and one. Then you kind of have this dawn
of the digital age and social media and all that
that does for mobilizing or disenfranchising people from voting, and
then it reaches this head in twenty twenty four where
people just aren't turning up.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah, and so the government sees lowering the voting age
as a way to re engage people with the democratic
process and to boost participation. And there is this school
of thought that suggests that if people start voting at sixteen,
then they're more likely to continue voting throughout their lives,
which they see as a way to boost overall turnout.
(05:45):
So it's kind of a long term strategy here.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Interesting. I think when we hear the conversations about lowering
the voting age, especially here, in Australia, it's often centered
around policy and what that policy means for the future generations,
as we've touched on a little bit. But this angle
on voter turnout is really interesting. It's not really something
I had thought about, especially here with compulsory voting, kind
(06:08):
of what that might mean in a different country or
government or democracy. What has the reaction been though to
this announcement. I'm really fascinated because I know this is
a topic that divides people very strongly.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Yeah, so the main opposition in the UK, the Conservative Party,
is strongly against the proposal. Paul Holmes, who is a
senior Conservative politician, he raised concerns in the comments about
the inconsistency of age limits.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Here's a little bit of what he said.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Young people are being abandoned in drows by the Labor Party.
So why does this government think a sixteen year old
can vote but not be allowed to buy a lottery
ticket and alcoholic drink, marry, or go to war or
even stand in the elections they're voting in. Isn't the
government's position on the age of majority just hopelessly confused?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So there he's really talking about all of the different
things that sixteen year olds can't do like drink or ma,
and so he's therefore saying, if we don't trust them
to do that, then why would we trust them to vote?
What I found interesting about that is that it's actually
kind of similar to why the government did introduce it, although.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
They flipped it.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
They said that we do allow sixteen year olds to
leave school, we do allow them to work and to
pay taxes, so therefore, why wouldn't we allow them.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
To also vote.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
It's kind of this thing of like you're looking at
two sets of facts but taking very different angles from it.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
It's kind of a spectrum in terms of what is
an adult what does adulthood look like in the UK?
And when you are sixteen you can do some things
that are pretty adult sounding on paper, but then there
are other things that are off limits to Youah. How
does all this compare to what's happening in Australia in
terms of the kind of current regulations and the conversation
(07:51):
that we've been having.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, So in Australia, like I said before, the voting
age is eighteen and it has been that since nineteen
seventy three, saying that though there have been several attempts
over the years to change that. In twenty twenty three,
the then Green's MP Stephen Bates introduced a private member's
bill to allow sixteen and seventeen year olds to vote now.
(08:14):
His reasoning at the time, Bates argued that lowering the
voting age would give young people the opportunity to have
a real say over the politics and policies that will
impact them.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
For the rest of their lives.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
So exactly the reasoning that we were talking about before,
which is why the UK government has introduced this bill.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
However, the bill.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
That Stephen Bates introduced in twenty twenty three that did
not have the support of either the opposition or the
government at the time.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Yeah, I remember that being kind of roundly shut down
by both major parties. But what was interesting about the
Green's proposal at the time was that it suggested allowing
sixteen and seventeen year olds the option to vote, but
not making it mandatory.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Which it is for the rest of Australia exactly, which
would make it different in that way, I suppose.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yeah, Okay, So that was twenty twenty three, Billy, so
really not so long ago under an Albanesi government. What
was the reason that Labor gave for not supporting it.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Yeah, so at the time, I spoke to the then
Youth Minister Anne Ali about why the government wasn't in
support of it, and she basically just said that she
didn't believe it was a priority for young people.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Here's a little bit of that interview.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Can you explain why the government is not in favor
of lowering the voting age to sixteen?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
The first thing I'll say is that when I go
out and talk with young people, lowering the voting age
is not one of the top five issues that comes up.
I don't want young people to think that voting is
the only agency that they have in making change.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
So the Australian government's position was just essentially that young
people themselves weren't asking for this change, according to them.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Okay, so the kind of conversation ongoing here in Australia,
but we know this is happening in the U. Remind
me when this is actually coming into effect.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
So they have just said that this will be in
place by the time there is the next election, which
will be in twenty twenty nine, so that gives them
a few years to get the legislation through Parliament and
to have it come into.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Effect really refresh my memory. I know that the Labor
victory at the last UK election was pretty historic, bit
of a landslide. Do they have the numbers then to
pass this legislation?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Is it a short thing? Yeah, I mean it's never
a short thing.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
But they do have the numbers in Parliament to get
this through, so by all accounts this should be getting
through even though they don't.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Have the support of the opposition.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Fascinating. It is such an interesting, evolving conversation. It will
be really really interesting to see kind of how things
in the UK might shift the conversation for other parts
of the world, other parts of the Commonwealth. Really significant
and super interesting for young audiences. Will keep you updated
as we we learn more about this one. Thank you
(11:02):
so much Billy for explaining it to us.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
That's all for today's deep dive. Thank you so much
for tuning in. We will be back a little later
on with your afternoon headlines, but until then, have a
great day.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
bunjelung Kalkutin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily Oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Strait island and nations.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
both past and present.
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